


You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk

by Lothiriel84



Series: What have I done to deserve this? [1]
Category: MarsCorp (Podcast)
Genre: Birthday Presents, Drunken Flirting, I Don't Even Know, M/M, Mentor/Protégé, Teen Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-01
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-31 21:28:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15128186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lothiriel84/pseuds/Lothiriel84
Summary: What's the meaningwhen you speak with so much feeling?Is it over when you're sober?Am I junk?





	You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You're Drunk

He ducked into the toilets, taking a moment to catch his breath. He could still hear the clamour of voices filtering in from the dance hall – the music too loud, the room too crowded for comfort – and for a moment there, he wished he was back in the quiet of his own room, with the gurgling of pipes and drains as the only sound he could hear.

 _You can do it, David_ , he instructed himself, staring at his own reflection in the streaked mirror above the sinks. _All you need to do is find Colin, and hand him his birthday present. Then you can go back to your quarters, and forget everything about this sorry business._

Strictly speaking, he wasn’t even supposed to be there; as far as his parents were concerned, he was staying at one of his friends’ – never mind that he didn’t have any close friends of his own age, not really – revising for his upcoming Internship Midterm Presentation. Still, there was no way he was going to miss the party Colin was throwing on the occasion of his twenty-seventh birthday, even if he had to talk himself out of a full-on meltdown in a dimly lit washroom, and crawl his way through the partying crowd once more.

He stared at the box in his hand, all wrapped in brightly coloured paper and tied with a ribbon – and Shareholders, what a terminally stupid plan this was, right from the start. How could he even think someone as cool and sophisticated as Colin would be pleased with his pathetic attempt at coming up a suitable birthday present? He was just a boring, unremarkable kid, and there was nothing he could do about that, no matter how hard he tried.

Several more minutes trickled by before he was finally able to drag himself out of the toilets, his legs only a little unsteady as he navigated his way through the throng of plastered adults – Colin still nowhere in sight, and what had he been expecting, really? The man had probably slunk away with some handsome bloke ages ago so that they could continue the celebrations somewhere private, and who was he to blame him?

He was stumbling blindly towards the exit by now, and he had nearly reached his intended destination when someone bumped right into him; he only realised he’d dropped his precious box when it landed onto the floor with a sickening thud, lying there shattered like his hopes and dreams.

“David! I wasn’t expecting to see you here, buddy,” a very much familiar voice made itself heard, just as he was inspecting the damage sustained by the project he’d been working on for the better part of the past few months. Just his luck, a small part of his brain informed him; yet he did nothing to acknowledge Colin’s presence, hoping against hope that this was all a bad dream, and that he was going to wake up any time now.

“I’m so glad you came, man. Come on, let’s get you a drink.”

Before he could process what was happening he found himself standing in an altogether different part of the room, an obscenely large pink cocktail being pushed in his hand, his mind struggling to keep up with Colin’s constant chatter. His friend was seemingly trying to figure out how to place the contents of the box back together – a scale model of the interdimensional portal Colin had been going on about for ages, yet couldn’t seem able to figure out the actual science behind it – when he abruptly gave up in favour of staring at David himself.

“You know, it’s not fair of you, buddy – you shouldn’t be sneaking up on people, looking all gorgeous and so very kissable.”

“I’m – sorry?” he stuttered in momentary shock, his brain choosing that exact same moment to finally realise what it had completely failed to observe so far. Colin had clearly had several ones too many, and he was just about as pissed as everyone else in that room; he might appear to be faring considerably better than most, as well as to retain the bulk of his faculties, but that didn’t mean David should believe a word of what he said at this moment in time.

“Come on, man, stop looking at me like that – someone as smart as you are must have figured it ages ago, hey?”

“What – what am I supposed to have figured out?” David felt compelled to ask, even against his better judgment. He knew exactly what Colin was going to say next, just as he knew with sudden clarity that they were both going to pretend none of this had happened tomorrow.

Colin didn’t actually say anything, merely stood there smiling down at him for a long moment; presently he took a step closer, pressed a quick, alcohol-flavoured kiss on David’s lips, and simply walked away.

David just about managed to make it out of the room and into the nearest supply closet before breaking down and crying all the tears he’d been holding back for the past sixteen years.


End file.
